Good Year Duratrac vibration, tire shop has ballance them 4 times now

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Brian3676

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Had some Good Year Duratracs installed 2 weeks ago. One size taller than stock, they are 265/65/18. Truck used to drive super smooth with old tires I just wanted something more aggressive. Ever since install the truck has vibrated / wobbled. Took them back and they were out of ballance, so they re ballance them. Now it was twice as bad. Took it back again and they road force balance them, it got a little better, but still not right. They then replaced the back 2 tires thinking they were defective and re road force ballance everything. Now it's still vibrating. The manager is recommending I get different tire and they will swap them outout for a full refund. He says that maybe this is just a bad tire for the truck as he has seen some tires just not drive well on certain cars. He recommended the Ko2, Trail grappler, or Michellen LTX.

Kinda bummed as I really like the Duratracs. I do 90% on road, 10% light off road and snow in the winter. Anyone has Duratracs just not work on there truck? What tire would you replace them with?
 
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I went through a similar thing with a new set of BFG Rugged Terrains. Balanced at install and once again a week later. Both at Walmart. Both times they were still very obviously out of balance. Took it to the Toyota dealership. No better. Took it to a very well respected local tire shop and now it's fine.

Apparently these wheels are hard to balance. There is a TSB from years ago that say that they pretty much have to be balanced on a Hunter machine with a lug centric adapter. That's what finally worked for me.
 
Disclaimer: I don't have Duratracs on mine, but I haven't heard any stories of them being extra difficult to balance.

It sounds like there might be a problem with the way they're doing the balancing, not the tires. I know there's a TSB about balancing these Toyota wheels, apparently they can be quite finicky and need a specific adapter for the balancing machine to function correctly. I think a problem with the tire would show up when they tried to balance them, but if they balanced well on the machine (especially a Hunter roadforce machine) then they should end up pretty well balanced on the truck.

Check if the tire shop has been using the correct adapter for your wheels, that might help.

Aside from that, I've only had experience with some BFG KOs (not the KO2s though); I thought the ride was quite smooth and not too noisy, I would recommend them as an alternative depending on what sort of driving you'll be doing.

Edit: fdbyrne beat me to it! +1 to his advice, make sure they're performing the balance correctly.
 
I have watched them ballance them each time. They do put an adapter on the machine. (Not the cone kind, one for our wheels) not sure what kind it is, but I know other people who all have Toyota trucks and have had this Discount tire do there tires and they have no issues. One co worker has the Duratracs on his 4runner, but with the 17" wheel. Other has a Tacoma with Ko2
 
Myself I would find another shop to balance the tires,just because they are their GoodYear tires does not mean they can do the job right. There tires might be quality but I sure don't trust their factory shops or the contract GoodYear shops.
Myself I really like Hibdon tire shops they are honest, pay their shop employees well and they have never failed me or tried to screw me.
 
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Go with the Michelin LTX MS/2.

I had the same problem with not being able to balance. The issue was determined that the tread was wavy. If you know what you were looking for, you could actually see the waviness. Just enough to shake at speed.
 
I and about 90% of the people I know with 4x4's run Duratracs and I haven't heard of this before. One thing that I've experienced in the past with tires that seemed not to balance well at certain shops was that they had to be "road-force balanced". That has always resolved any tire balancing issues that I was experiencing. I don't know if my Duratracs were road-force balanced, but they've been nice since they were installed. Maybe that's something you could ask about.
 
Never had any balancing problems with mine but I will never buy them again. So far I've had two sidewalls split which is crap. They get fixed under the road hazard warranty only after I told them they sold me a junk brand and would never buy from them again.
 
CXS said:
Never had any balancing problems with mine but I will never buy them again. So far I've had two sidewalls split which is crap. They get fixed under the road hazard warranty only after I told them they sold me a junk brand and would never buy from them again.
Click to expand...

One has to trust their tires,their life and their families lives depend on the tires on their cars and trucks.
To me it's like my firearms, I have to trust them if I need them.:uzi:
 
Ralph Blake said:
One has to trust their tires,their life and their families lives depend on the tires on their cars and trucks.
To me it's like my firearms, I have to trust them if I need them.:uzi:
Click to expand...

Yep, if you've ever run Schofield Pass in CO (or read about it) you know it's not a fun place to drive out of with a flat tire. My wife won't ride that pass any more after the blowout.

Probably not an issue now since a rock slide appears to have closed it permanently.

http://livingintheslowlane.com/pages/Schofield-Pass-Devil-s-Punchbowl
 
Pulled all the brakes apart last night and checked for frozen calipers, tried rotating the tires to see if it changed, checked all the suspension (bushings, shocks, ball joints and all that) greased the drive shafts, changed the diff and transfer case fluids and checked wheel bearings just to be sure everything is good, although this issues started when the new tires were put on so I was doubtful there was anything wrong. Called the dealer and they actually recommend the same discount tire I went to, and said when they have ballance issues they actually send the tires to them. Really wanna keep the Duratracs, but u guess not gunna happen. Leaning towards the Ko2, just hate the mpg hit I'll likely take even though it's small. Oh well, cost of playing I suppose
 
Like many other things, sometimes you just get a bad batch of product. If you like the tires, i would have them replaced with the same kind. They can't all be bad to balance or how could they sell them. JMHO
 
RedSled said:
Like many other things, sometimes you just get a bad batch of product. If you like the tires, i would have them replaced with the same kind. They can't all be bad to balance or how could they sell them. JMHO
Click to expand...

Thats what I suspected, was a bad batch. They replaced 2 of them already, but from the same distributor that had I think 68 of them in stock. Likely the same batch. I wish they could order some from someone else so it would be a different batch of tires. I am leaving Thursday morning for a week long trip though and dont have time to try and get them sorted out
 
I have 285 70 17's on 17" KMC wheels. Purchased, mounted and balanced at 4Wheel Parts in Houston with no issues. As stated by others, your problem is probably more with the OEM wheels.
 
I called Goodyear this morning and asked them. They said they have not heard of any issues with there Duratrac tires in the last few years or issued any recalls. They also suggested the same thing that Discount did and said they are likley just not the right tire for the truck, specially if they were road force balanced them and they zero out on the machine. I told them I dont understand how so many people run them on 4Runners with no issues. They said it even comes down to the size being the difference. They suggested trying a 17" wheel on the Duratracs or just getting something different, even suggesting the Ko2 as their competitor which I thought was pretty crazy telling me to get something not Goodyear haha

I considered getting the TRD pro wheels, but decided not to spend the money. Called and ordered up the Ko2, hopefully it fixes the issue :pray2:
 
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I of you haven't already, I would very closely check ball joints and wheel bearing. Newer/heavier tires can draw out other weaknesses or worn components.
 
Greydog said:
I of you haven't already, I would very closely check ball joints and wheel bearing. Newer/heavier tires can draw out other weaknesses or worn components.
Click to expand...

Checked them all yesterday. Even took apart the brakes and checked each piston. Front wheel bearings are actually new as of about 2 months ago. Ball joints seem tight, the truck only has 80K miles on it, the PO was a 70 year old dentist and was never abused. Not a drop of leaking oil anywhere on the shocks.
 
I had the same issue with my trail grapplers, only advice I can give us make sure they are using the hub centric adapter to balance, it's a ring and they actually attach it to your wheel with the lug nuts, then mount on the balancer, did the trick for me after arguing with the tech after his 3rd unsuccessful try with a normal balance
 
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